Microsoft looking at mobile payments system for Windows 10

Microsoft is currently developing a payments and wallet system for its Windows 10 mobile platform, revealed Microsoft’s operating systems group VP Joe Belfiore in a recent interview, according to a report by The Verge.

Windows has had a digital wallet feature since Windows Phone 8, however, this will mark the first time the operating system has offered payments capability.

Microsoft’s top two competitors — Apple and Google — have both been offering payments functionality online and at the point-of-sale within their operating systems for a while now.

“Windows is going to have a wallet concept. You’ve seen it on phones before. We’re going to continue to iterate it,” said Belfiore. “We’re going to think about the range of payment scenarios.”

The payments feature will likely use Windows Hello, the new facial authentication capability Microsoft integrated with Windows 10.

“[Mobile payments] is just one of these things that is a massive network of complexity,” said Belfiore. “I think the biggest challenge is, ‘What effect will cause enough of the right things to align that you’ll get a good experience with all the places that you want it to happen in?’ And that’s kind of a world problem.”

Previously reported, Goode Intelligence recently released a new analyst report titled “Biometrics for Payments – Payments Security Gets Personal; Market and Technology Analysis, Adoption Strategies and Forecasts 2015-2020”, which forecasts that by 2020 over $5.6 trillion of payments will be secured by biometric technology.